Pros
I believe I joined the Penguin Random House UK Technology department at an excellent time. We are in the process of modernising our technology stacks and moving away from traditional on-premises infrastructure by utilising cloud technology, automation, containerisation, and Infrastructure as Code (IaC). As a technical engineering manager, this suits me perfectly, as the work is interesting, non-repetitive, and has a real impact on the business. In fact, the team I currently manage has already made a significant impact on our retail products by developing an automation tool that has transformed a multi-week manual process into an automated 5-minute process. I feel that my ideas and opinions are heard by senior management, and I am also given the freedom to manage, explore, and learn new technologies that are relevant to our modernisation projects. The benefits of working here are also great, from flexible working hours, free books and e-books, to private health insurance, substantial employer's pension contributions, and a generous amount of holiday allowance, which significantly contributes to my work/life balance. There are also many internal interest groups to join aswell, in my case I am a parent, so I joined the Penguin Parents group. Through this, I have been provided with free childrens books, offered cinema tickets for a Peppa Pig film premiere, and have joined Q&A sessions with authors of some of our published books.
Cons
The Embassy Gardens office in London can get quite busy somedays and it can be hard to find a place to sit, although I am able to work from home in my role if I choose too.